And the Oscar for Best City as a Movie Setting Goes to …

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The actor Ray Milland on location in New York for the movie, “The Lost Weekend.” The bar P.J. Clarke’s and Bellevue Hospital, both in Midtown East, provided the backdrops for other scenes.CreditCreditJerry Cooke/The LIFE Images Collection, via Getty Images

By Keith Williams

March 2, 2018

Q. How many Best Picture Oscar winners were either set or filmed in New York?

A. A casual look through the Academy Awards Database reveals that more than 20 of the 89 films that have won Best Picture have directly involved New York.

In the early days of Hollywood, many of the films supposedly set in New York were filmed on studio lots, like “The Broadway Melody” (1929), “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936), “You Can’t Take It With You” (1938) and “Going My Way” (1944).

That trend changed in 1945, when the director Billy Wilder decided to film much of “The Lost Weekend” on location, in part to convey “the grim relation of the individual to the vast, unknowing mass,” according to a contemporary Times review.

Set at P.J. Clarke’s, the legendary Third Avenue bar — the rattle from the since-demolished Third Avenue El forced Wilder to reshoot interior scenes at a California soundstage — “The Lost Weekend” also features a rare look inside the alcoholic ward at Bellevue Hospital.

Wilder also directed “The Apartment” (1960). Although much of the film was shot on a soundstage, Jack Lemmon caught a cold after filming a scene on a Central Park bench in subzero temperatures. Some recent sleuthing discovered the set was designed to mimic the brownstones around 55 West 69th Street.

Many of these films captured aspects of New York that no longer exist. The prologue for “West Side Story” (1961) was filmed on the site of the future Lincoln Center, while in “Midnight Cowboy” (1969), Jon Voight’s Joe Buck stays at the now-demolished Hotel Claridge in Times Square, which many real-life mobsters also called home.

Speaking of organized crime — and filming on set — it’s hard to imagine “The Godfather” (1972) without its distinctly gritty New York flavor. But it almost didn’t happen. Paramount execs wanted the director Francis Ford Coppola to shoot the film in Kansas City to save money. (Two years later, Mr. Coppola would win again with the film’s sequel, “The Godfather Part II.”)

Set in part in Staten Island, “The Godfather” was not the first New York City winner shot outside of Manhattan. “On the Waterfront” (1954) was filmed on location across the Hudson River in Hoboken, N.J., although the original script, called “The Hook,” was set in Brooklyn’s Red Hook area. And ”Marty” (1955) was set and filmed in the Bronx.

The most recent winner set and filmed in New York was “Birdman” (2014); before that, the honor belonged to “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979). The scene featuring Dustin Hoffman smacking his wine glass against the wall was filmed at J.G. Melon on the Upper East Side.

Other films that feature New York in some way include “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), ”All About Eve” (1950), ”Terms of Endearment” (1983), “Titanic” (1997) and ”A Beautiful Mind” (2001); of this year’s nominees, “Lady Bird” and “The Post” both qualify.

Finally, the one odd duck in the mix: ”The Departed” (2006). Although the film is set in Boston, many interior scenes were filmed in New York, taking advantage of the recently enacted Film Production Tax Credit program.